Assemble the box - HP still love their bizarre internal hex headed screws, but at least in this case the door has all of them you would need in a neat row, complete with the hex head allen key - nice.

Next, install NetBSD to a cheap USB key - just boot a standard install CD and run through the steps & setup to allow remote root ssh. Alternatively download a live ISO image - either way the goal is to have something you can boot and then work on in a laptop window from the comfort of the sofa.

The best way to learn UNIX is to play with it, and the harder you play, the more you learn. If you play hard enough, you'll break something for sure, and having to fix a badly broken system is arguably the fastest way of all to learn. -Michael Lucas, AbsoluteBSD